Bar Clarine, Melbourne

Our restaurant critics' picks of the latest and best eats
around the country right now: Bar Clarine, Melbourne.

The family resemblance is initially difficult to spot,
particularly with them sitting right next to each other on
Fitzroy's Gertrude Street. But while the neon-lit American
diner-style
Belle's Hot Chicken and the poised and compact Bar Clarine may
seem poles apart, the lineage becomes clear once you check their
wine lists (and, perhaps, the doorway that's been knocked through
their adjoining wall). Natural wine - minimal interventionist, no
sulphur, you know the drill - rules the day on both lists, but Bar
Clarine is the more focused sibling: its list is lengthier, its
geographical reach more ambitious, its by-the-glass offering more
generous. The seven-item menu (which changes every 10 days or so)
plays sideshow to the main event, but with the open kitchen at the
back of the tiny space it's still an important and interesting part
of the package. Chef Adam Shoebridge puts together the snacks in an
interesting fashion, teaming his freshly shucked oysters with white
pepper, cucumber and bay oil, making exemplary sauce gribiche to
complement his robustly flavoured tête de porc and managing to make
the pikelet-like Carolina rice cakes seem perfectly logical being
served with a boiled peanut hummus (peanut butter for adults) and
green tomato chow chow. There might be tinned sardines on toast and
perhaps marinated kingfish served with sour radishes - all good
stuff and well suited to the wine. And, for those in need of a
fried-chicken fix, it's right there on the other side of the
door.